Negged
by extremelylargebees
Summary: Sabrina can't sleep, and goes to the roof for some fresh air. Late night talks ensue.


Above Sabrina, the model airplanes dangle. They have an uncanny resemblance to the ones that hung in her dad's old room.

She is tempted to throw them across the floor.

Instead of sleeping, all she's managed to do is stare at them. She has laid in every possible position, with her pillow on the strangest regions of her bed. Yet here she is, still looking up at the model airplanes.

She picks up her phone, reflexively squinting at its glow. The time is ungodly, and she groans in self-pity. This house is full of old people, young children, and parents exhausted from taking care of young children. Naturally, everyone else has fallen asleep hours ago. Everyone except Sabrina.

In one swift motion, she yanks off the covers and storms away from the bedroom.

For awhile, she drifts through the house. She studies the new rooms again, taken aback by how freakishly similar Relda's old house is in comparison to the rebuilt one. The only thing that's different is they've expanded the attic.

Sabrina decides to go up there.

There is one sole window on this level. It's circular, and leads out to a flat portion of the roof. Maybe sitting out there will put her mind at ease, despite her belief that it's corny to gaze up at the stars. She muses that it could be lame enough to exhaust her

She climbs onto the roof, and begrudgingly studies the night sky.

She groans in irritation. It's beautiful.

Fleets of twinkling lights are scattered across the heavens. Sabrina thinks they may rival the fluorescent glow of Manhattan.

"Grimm?"

Sabrina jumps, uneasily close to the edge of the roof. She desperately scoots back.

Unfortunately, the intruder notices, and he cackles with amusement.

He flutters down next to Sabrina, unfazed by her glare

"Oh man, that was good," he comments, between giggles.

"How would I have guessed you were up here?" she snaps.

Puck loses it all over again. Sabrina huffs, turning away from the impish boy.

She'll never find peace with the personification of an air horn next to her. She decides she's better off finding a quieter place in the house.

Just as she reaches for the window, Puck grabs her arm. "Hey, where are you going?" he asks.

She looks at him in disbelief. "To find someplace more quiet."

Puck relaxes his grip and scoffs. "What's more quiet than the roof in the middle of nowhere?"

"The same roof without you on it," she shoots back.

Puck's opens his mouth, then closes it. Sabrina rolls her eyes, and reaches again for the hatch.

When Puck once more grabs her arm, she yanks it back.

"Do you have problem?" she snaps.

He, again, says nothing, and Sabrina finally pops the window open. She can feel his eyes on her as she climbs inside.

"Why are you acting so weird?" his voice calls out from behind her.

She freezes, already halfway to the stairs. Sabrina turns to see his head peering through the open window. She stares him down, but he stares back.

Finally, she looks away, giving into her curiosity.

"What are you talking about?" she inquires wearily. When Puck actually cares about something, arguing with him can be exhausting.

Puck's expression becomes panicked.

"I don't know!" he finally exclaims. "You-"

"You don't know? Then why did you say-"

"You avoid me, okay?"

Sabrina stills, and Puck so wrongly takes this as a sign to continue. "You ignore me, and act more like a stinkpot than usual. It's getting annoying."

For a moment Sabrina is speechless. She doesn't even know where to begin.

"Ignore you?" she hisses. She stands on the chair in front of the window, so she can look him directly in the eye. "I'm ignoring you?"

Puck searches her face. "Yeah?" he answers, albeit with uncertainty.

She pinches the bridge of her nose. "Puck, what about you ignoring me?"

He raises his eyebrows. Sabrina can't believe he's acting surprised. "What-"

"We've been emailing you for months, and you haven't had the decency to reply to once," she shouts. "Even to Daphne's painfully detailed photo collages."

Puck gapes her. Sabrina feels slightly gratified in catching him completely off guard.

"There was a lot going on-"

"Oh please," she interjects. "You couldn't spare a second to at least confirm you were alive? You were that busy for a whole year?"

Puck diverts his eyes from her.

"Were you too swamped to even tell us you were in Faerie?" she presses.

He jerks up, wide-eyed. He opens his mouth, as if a good comeback will magically fall out of it.

"Not as dumb as you thought, huh?" she remarks, seeping with sarcasm.

Sabrina waits for him to reply, to defend himself, but he says nothing. He shuts his mouth, and avoids her gaze completely.

Sabrina sighs, more in disappointment than anger. She doesn't feel as if she's won this argument.

"Goodnight, Puck." she monotones. She climbs off the chair, and finally heads back to the attic stairs.

As Sabrina reaches the first step, she hears the buzz of his wings approaching her. She whips around.

He lands, and his wings disappear. She waits for him to say something, but he only shuffles his feet.

"Well?" Sabrina asks. Her arms are crossed, and she taps her bare foot against the wooden floor.

He takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry, okay?"

Sabrina stiffens.

"Can you at least let me explain myself?" he asks. "I'm not saying it was right, but maybe you can at least understand?"

Sabrina would prefer to storm off. She's already feeling embarrassed for her rant.

However, she knows she owes him this courtesy, if she wants to be a better...whatever they are than he is. After a pause, she nods in agreement.

They climb back onto the roof, and Puck proceeds to explain. She can feel his eyes boring into her, but she can't bring herself to turn away from the horizon.

"Traveling with Jake was awesome, like the best thing I've done in two hundred years. Well, except the war, but that's different. Anyways, we went on all sorts of crazy missions, and it was easy to get caught up in it all. Only after the excitement had worn off a little, I realized I may have...lost it a bit. I hadn't even pulled a single prank!" he exclaims.

Sabrina can feel him waiting for her comeback, but she opts to say nothing.

After a strained pause, Puck continues. "So, I called up the Old Lady, to show that I was actually alive, and Jake wasn't spinning tales to keep her from worrying."

"How long did you not call Granny?" Sabrina interrupts.

Puck sighs, turning away for a moment. "Six months."

When Sabrina doesn't reply, mostly out of shock, he presses on. "I expected her to be disappointed that I hadn't reached out to her, but she actually began crying. It was really strange," he says, looking again at Sabrina. "But it made sense, once she explained that Jake hadn't been calling her either."

"Really?" Sabrina exclaims, surprised. Uncle Jake could be blind to others' feelings, but she didn't think he could be that brainless.

"Yeah, I think it's 'cause he was still upset about Briar. I didn't consider it until she told me this." Puck laughs humorlessly. "I thought he was eager to do all those missions because he was stir crazy too."

Though Sabrina may feel miffed, she can't blame him for feeling cooped up.

"After I finished talking to the Old Lady, I checked my email," he continues.

Before Puck had left, the girls had helped him set up an email account. He claimed he needed one because his mom was nagging him. However, sometime before his departure, he "offhandedly" mentioned it would be cool if Sabrina and Daphne emailed him too.

"I saw dozens of things from you guys, my mom, and Mustardseed. I think a few emails were even from your parents," Puck recounts. "I emailed my mom and brother back, but I figured you and Daphne were either too mad at me to reply, or you had moved on. After all, the last of your emails had come a month ago."

Sabrina is infuriated. "Of course we stopped sending you things!" she argues. "It was like trying to communicate with a brick wall!"

"Hey Grimm, for once, I'm not blaming you," Puck points out, holding up his hands in defense. "I'm just saying what happened."

Sabrina huffs, but says nothing.

"That's also why I didn't tell you and Daphne I was in Faerie. I just thought it wouldn't matter," he says, with a shrug.

Sabrina stares off at the stars, processing his story. The silence feels tense.

"Are you even going to look at me?" he asks. He sounds oddly young.

Sabrina faces him, and is alarmed to see that his usual smirk is gone. It's feels so unnatural that she's tempted to look away.

"Moving to New York was harder than I thought it would be," Sabrina concedes. The leaves rustle in the wind. "I felt like all the bad stuff from Ferryport had followed me there, and all the good stuff, even the okay stuff, had been a dream."

His swinging feet still.

"Puck, we would have understood," she finally says. "I just thought everyone had as much trouble as me moving on. Even though that wouldn't make much sense."

The silence is still taut, and Sabrina feels too vulnerable for her liking.

"Whether you like it or not, you're stuck with this family now," she comments.

Puck lets out a dramatic sigh. "Do I have to be?"

Sabrina shoves him lightly, and he laughs. For once, it doesn't sound manic. It sounds real.

They fall into silence again, but this time it's comfortable

"So," Sabrina starts hesitantly, "what, uh, kind of adventures did you go on?"

If she wants things to be civil between them, she might as well make an effort.

His eyes light up, and Sabrina smiles. "Okay, so first we went to Peru…"

He continues on, recounting all sorts of missions with Uncle Jake. They are intriguing, and Sabrina isn't surprised that Puck got swept away in it all. It's not for her, but it's everything he loves.

What does surprise her is when he, in turn, asks her about her life in New York. She tells him about school, how she's managed to wrangle a few friends, and that she's joined the softball team. Even more shocking, he doesn't mock how bland her life seems compared to his.

In the midst of discussing cheesy action flicks, Sabrina notices that the sky has changed. It's dark blue instead of black and all the stars have faded.

"Hey, I think I'm going to go back to bed, and try to salvage some sleep," she tells Puck.

He salutes her. "Alright, see ya in a few hours.

* * *

Long after the sun has risen, Sabrina thinks that it might have been the longest conversation they've had without arguing.


End file.
